Matthew 1

1 A genealogy*There is no definite article. of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:

2 Abraham begot Isaac, then Isaac begot Jacob, then Jacob begot Judah and his brothers;

3 then Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, then Perez begot Hezron, then Hezron begot Ram;

4 then Ram begot Amminadab, then Amminadab begot Nahshon, then Nahshon begot Salmon;

5 then Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, then Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, then Obed begot Jesse,

6 then Jesse begot David the king. Then King David begot Solomon by her who was of Uriah,*Sins may be forgiven, but your curriculum remains—3,000 years later we still read about David’s sin (Bathsheba is not named, she was Uriah’s wife). The only women included in the genealogy (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth [Deuteronomy 23:13], Bathsheba) represent some violation—perhaps to emphasize the grace of God.

7 then Solomon begot Rehoboam, then Rehoboam begot Abijah, then Abijah begot Asa;

8 then Asa begot Jehoshaphat, then Jehoshaphat begot Joram, then Joram begot Uzziah;

9 then Uzziah begot Jotham, then Jotham begot Ahaz, then Ahaz begot Hezekiah;

10 then Hezekiah begot Manasseh, then Manasseh begot Amon, then Amon begot Josiah;

11 then Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time of the Babylonian captivity.

12 After the Babylonian captivity Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, then Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel;

13 then Zerubbabel begot Abiud, then Abiud begot Eliakim, then Eliakim begot Azor;

14 then Azor begot Zadok, then Zadok begot Achim, then Achim begot Eliud;

15 then Eliud begot Eleazar, then Eleazar begot Matthan, then Matthan begot Jacob;

16 then Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom was begotten Jesus, who is called Christ.*Here the formula changes, because Jesus could not be the son of Joseph—see Jeremiah 22:30.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David until the Babylonian captivity are fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian captivity until the Christ are fourteen generations.*This is really Joseph’s genealogy. As foster father he confers the legal right to the throne of David on Jesus. Since the throne of David has to do with the covenant people, this genealogy only goes back to Abraham. In contrast, Mary’s genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) goes back to Adam and God—Jesus was literally son of both Adam and God. It has been observed that from David to the captivity there were seventeen kings, but Ahaziah reigned only one year, Amon only two and Abijah only three, so they would not count as generations—Matthew is correct in saying there were fourteen ‘generations’. For further discussion of perceived difficulties in this genealogy, please see the Appendix: Some related anomalies in Matthew’s genealogy of the Christ.